


Playing Pretend

by ShellyNelsonLahey



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, choni, sweetvee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:43:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShellyNelsonLahey/pseuds/ShellyNelsonLahey
Summary: When you fall for someone, you’re terrified to let them know—and when someone offers to help you make them jealous, well, you can’t really say no, can you?Except, as you get to know them, grow closer to another human being, you begin to love the little things they do, every bit of their personality and you… forget. About whoever else you liked, because this person, they’re so perfect to you.Veronica was in love with Jughead, but she never intended to fall for Sweet Pea—and now she was in a big, sad mess that could end horribly. If only she could gain the courage to let the hunky Serpent know about her evolved feelings.





	Playing Pretend

“Here’s a tip, Lodge. If you don’t want people to know that you like somebody, don’t stare at them from afar,” Sweet Pea leaned up against the bar of the La Bonne Nuit, looking up at the enrapturing woman with the raven hair — the woman who’s heart was aching for someone who didn’t seem the least bit interested in her. Mindlessly, she wiped at the used glasses and flickered her gaze towards the tall Serpent sporting his protective, yet nonchalant stance of crossed arms and signature smirk. “Why don’t you just ask him out?

She grumbled, “I’m Veronica Lodge. I don’t ask boys out, they ask me out.” She placed the now clean glass behind the counter, then unscrewed the cap of her water bottle to take a drink.

“Okay... Lodge, will you go out with me?” Sweet Pea watched as her sudden confused reaction diverted the water into her airway, causing her to cough violently for a couple of moments.

She quickly took another swig to end her fit before she met the boy’s humorous expression. Her eyebrows drew together. “What?”

“Not that hard,” he shrugged, taking in a deep breath through his nose as he straightened his back and his jacket to show her that he didn’t really mean it. “See?”

“For a second there, I thought you were serious,” she took another drink of her water before she brought her attention back to Jughead, who was conversing with Betty on the other side of the speakeasy. They weren’t dating, but seeing them be all happy and giggly with one another brought a pang of hurt and jealousy throughout Veronica’s body. She wished Jughead would see her like that, would see her as more than just a friend. But after what happened with her father, he seemed more distant, as if he blamed her father’s doings on her. It wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t really stop him if that really were the reasoning behind his lack of friendship towards her. “And I thought you were dating Fangs, to be honest.”

“No. We’ve done some shit, but, ultimately, we’re just best friends,” Sweet Pea shrugged, almost as if he had no care in the world.

“I wonder if he even likes me as a friend anymore.” Veronica murmured lowly to herself as she eyed the inventory behind her, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “Come with me to the back room so we can continue talking? You seem to be helping in some odd, therapeutic way. I’ll even give you a free drink for your troubles.”

“Sure. But, I don’t need a free drink, Lodge. Helping you with your shit isn’t troubling at all,” Sweet Pea followed after the woman as she lead the way towards the back room. It wasn’t that far away considering the Speakeasy was about the same size as Pop’s. “So, you like Jones for some reason. Have you ever thought of making him jealous?”

“What am I, in sixth grade?” Veronica retorted, sending him a pointed look. “Besides, does Jughead seem like the type to become jealous easily?”

“Jones? Oh, definitely,” Sweet Pea scoffed, arms crossing as Veronica began to mentally count how many containers of juice she currently had. “He gets over-protective over the things that he values. I’m not entirely sure if he does like you, but for the sake of argument, let’s say he does — he likes you and sees some other guy, or girl, moving in on someone he secretly wants? He’ll become all predatory and jealous, and he’ll do anything to keep you on his side.”

“That sounds like he owns me,” Veronica curled her lip in distaste. “Still, I do see what you mean.”

“So, want to bring out the jealousy in him?” Sweet Pea casually leaned against the cool wall, eyebrow cocked in a teasing manner. “I’m kind of his right hand man. You and I dating? He’d go ballistic. It’d be kinda fun to watch him freak out.”

“Are you proposing that we fake a relationship to make Jughead jealous, and therefore, want to date me?” Veronica gaped at the Serpent, shocked at his suggestion. “What if he doesn’t even like me and it fails?”

Sweet Pea shrugged nonchalantly, truly uncaring of if their plan went wrong. “Well, then I get the privilege of being Veronica Lodge’s ex-boyfriend, and you get the ability to say you dated the bad boy Serpent who doesn’t let people in easily. Win-win.”

“I don’t know... but I’m curious—why would you want to do this when you don’t really get anything out of it?”

“Well, partly because i’m bored and having nothing better to do, but I also don’t like seeing you like this, Veronica. After everything with your father, it’s like you’re living in a ghost of yourself. I just hope that this can help bring you back to how you used to be,” Sweet Pea gave the girl a small, sympathetic smile and a caring squeeze on her shoulder. “Don’t tell anybody this, but I miss the old Veronica Lodge. Just... think about it, alright?”

“I will,” Veronica nodded lightly, stepping towards the shelf full of supplies. She reached onto her tip toes to try and snatch one of the large bags full of cocktail napkins. However, due to her height, she couldn’t quite reach. “Could you, uh...”

“How do you formally ask?”

“Sweet Pea, could you grab the cocktail napkins from the top shelf for me, please?” Veronica reiterated slowly with a big, hopeful grin. “It would be much appreciated.”

“Of course, Lodge.” Sweet Pea reached up from behind her. She tried to move to the side, only to end up causing both of them to lose their balance. With a shot of good luck, Sweet Pea managed to bring the cocktail napkins with them as they stumbled into the shelf beside them. “If you wanted to be close to me, Veronica, all you had to do was ask.”

“Shut up, Sweet Pea,” Veronica laughed, glancing up at the bag she desired before she snatched it from his grip. “Thank you, even though you were the one who couldn’t wait for me to move to the side.”

“I don’t know... I wasn’t really thinking,” Sweet Pea muttered. “Let’s go before we end up bringing down all of the shelves with us.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Veronica snickered, opening up the door to allow him to go through. However, his arm reached above her entire body to hold it himself, gesturing for her to go first. “Oh.. thank you.”

“What, surprised that I can be a gentleman, Lodge?” Sweet Pea snorted, following after her as she made her way back towards the Speakeasy. “You know, the only people who know the real me are Fangs and Toni. Everyone else just sees my attempts at protecting myself.”

“I would like to genuinely get to know the real you... if you’d allow me,” Veronica spoke softly, tenderly, as if anything louder would give off the wrong vibe. “Maybe one night we can just sit together and talk, as if we were catching up with a long-time friend.”

“I’d like that,” Sweet Pea smiled lightly. “A lot, actually. I know you’re a great woman and I would love to get to know you for who you are, not who others make you out to be.”

“I’m glad it’s mutual,” Veronica nodded gratefully as the two finally reached the bar again.

“Oh, hey, Cheryl wanted me to let you know that you have enough fruit up in the fridge upstairs,” Sweet Pea brought up, just remembering what Cheryl had asked him to tell Veronica — it was partly the reason why he went to the bar in the first place. “She might have stolen a couple of cherries, though. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Veronica chuckled. “Thanks, Sweet Pea.” She let out a small sigh before gathering a couple of glasses. “I can grab four glasses, could you grab two or three and a bottle of Welch’s sparkling grape juice? It’s break time and I really want a drink with my friends.”

“Sure,” Sweet Pea mumbled. Snickering under his breath, he added, “you know, you’ve been asking me to help a lot. Maybe I should work here.”

“Apply, and you’ll be considered. You’re a friend, and really the only applicant, so you’d have a great chance at getting the job,” Veronica smiled, the two of them making their way towards a large table in the back that held Betty, Jughead, Cheryl, Toni, and Fangs. Setting the glasses on the table in front of their respectable owner, Sweet Pea and Veronica joined in with wide smiles.

“Uh, Veronica... what’s up with your hair?” Betty questioned as she tried to hide her smile behind her arm. “What were you doing?”

“She went in the back with Sweet Pea,” Cheryl narrowed her eyebrows suggestively. “I wonder what they possibly could have done in such a short amount of time.”

“Did you two really go make out in the back room?” Fangs questioned as he poured himself a drink. “I don’t want to insinuate. I mean, remember when we thought that Betty and Jughead were together?”

Sweet Pea began to explain. “Oh, we were just—”

Veronica cleared her throat, interrupting him. “Sweet Pea and I have been keeping it a secret, but we... are together...” she slowed down towards the end to test their reactions. Sweet Pea looked over at her knowingly, smiling as he grabbed her hand with his from under the table. “I didn’t want anyone to know because once others know, the whole relationship changes. I’m sorry for keeping it from you guys.”

“And I started out by helping her, but I couldn’t keep my hands to myself with such a beautiful woman in front of me,” Sweet Pea leaned over and placed a kiss onto Veronica’s tender cheek. “All because those goddamn cocktail napkins are so high up.”

“Aw, isn’t that cute, Jug?” Betty leaned into the boy with the beanie. No one seemed to notice the restraint in his veins as he forced a smile.

“Who would have thought that the raging Serpent would capture the heart of the raven haired princess?” Jughead wiggled his eyebrows teasingly.

“Raging Serpent?” Veronica scoffed, shaking her head in utter disappointment at his wording, especially because he knew Sweet Pea more than other people did. “The only time I’ve seen Sweet Pea as enraged as a bull seeing red is when someone fucks with him. Archie goes to the South Side and tags their turf, and pulls a gun on him? He comes to the house and rightfully initiates a fight. Fangs is shot and he knows that the North Side is part of the reason? He trashes the school. Raging Serpent? More like a teenage boy who has been constantly shit on and the only way he can show it is through his fists. Call him that again, Jughead, and instead you’ll be giving that term to me.”

“Whoa, Veronica...” Jughead blinked in surprise, his neck craning backwards.

“Well, he’s a teenager — we’re all fucking teenagers! Who isn’t full of anger and rage at the world? It’s a fucked up place,” Veronica explained, thrusting her hands this way and that.

“I think maybe you’re the one filled with rage,” Jughead corrected himself with a low mumble, not wanting to anger her any further.

“Of course I am,” Veronica poured herself a glass, taking a lovely sip of the sparkling grape juice before continuing. “My father is trying to ruin my life simply because I chose the Serpents over him. He’s ruined everything good about Riverdale, for the sole reason of me refusing to hurt innocent people for an illegal business.”

“Yeah, she has a good point for hating everything, and so does Sweet Pea,” Toni agreed. “I’m going to change the topic back to Sweet Pea and Veronica dating, though, because I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I think it’s cute and you two are great for one another.”

Soon enough, the conversation died down and everybody simply just enjoyed their drinks, the silence. The only time anybody spoke up was when Sweet Pea leaned down towards Veronica and whispered, “thanks for sticking up for me, Lodge. Looks like you know me more than you know,” into her ear, and then... that was that. They were silent and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

 

 

 

 

That was how everything started between Veronica and Sweet Pea. The following months, the two were constantly together—you would rarely see them alone. It was almost as if they weren’t in a relationship based solely on making Jughead Jones jealous. And, to their benefit, it seemed to have worked. The beanie-wearing Serpent king’s gaze tended to fall upon the beautiful Latina as she worked her ass off to keep herself afloat. After moving out of the Pembrooke, she worked constantly to keep herself and her studies busy. It may have pissed off her father immensely, but it made her happy and everyone could see that.

Veronica was finally at a point in her life where she was content with who she was as a person. She owned a non-alcoholic speakeasy and Pop’s Chock Lit’Shoppe, both legitimate businesses and it was a big slap in the face to her father, which was a big bonus. Everything was fine.

Everything except for the fact that she knew she was falling hard and fast for Sweet Pea.

Their entire relationship had started because of her crush on Jughead, but after spending so much intimate time with Sweet Pea, she became devastatingly aware of her lack of feelings towards the boy this all started for. She was terrified to tell Sweet Pea, because clearly he had no feelings for her—he was pretending to date her just to make Jughead jealous. If he liked her, what kind of guy would do that? They had grown so close, she couldn’t fuck that up. She refused. However, she did have to vent out her feelings or else she might just explode at the wrong time. So, she went to everybody’s favorite couple, Cheryl Blossom and Toni Topaz.

Veronica softly knocked on the wooden door to Thistlehouse, her hands shaking as she breathed in to try and calm her nerves. Nothing was working, not even telling herself that Cheryl and Toni were her true friends, and they wouldn’t judge her. Not like Betty used to.

When Cheryl and Toni’s beaming smiles cracked open the door, Veronica sent them one back, albeit a nervous one. They were immediate to notice that their friend was panicking over something. “What’s wrong, love?”

Veronica made her way into the house, biting down on her lip as she reeled over what she was going to tell them. Her and Sweet Pea had promised each other that they wouldn’t tell anybody that they weren’t actually dating, but in order to get this off of her chest, to vent her feelings for Sweet Pea out, she had to come clean about the arrangement, no matter how much she didn’t want to betray Sweet Pea.

Taking in a deep breath, Veronica explained the situation. “Sweet Pea and I have been pretending to date this entire time. None of our relationship is real, and I know it seems like it and everybody thinks we are the cutest couple after you two, but I’m sorry to tell you that we’re not actually together.”

“What?” Toni furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean? How? But, you two seem so in love…”

“Yeah, I know. We’re good, huh? Sweet Pea and I have fantastic chemistry,” Veronica sighed sadly, “we started dating because he confronted me about having a crush on Jughead. When we went into the back room, he offered to fake-date me as a way to make Jughead jealous, and therefore, want me. But things have changed—at least, things have changed for me. I’m not sure about Sweet Pea, though.”

“Hold up, you had a crush on Jughead? Of all people, that annoying, whiny pissbaby who kicked us out for a stupid egg that you ended up smashing, anyways?” Cheryl gave her best friend a weird look, completely flabbergasted. She let out a small breath of air, calming herself down—especially with the help of Toni’s thumb soothingly swiping across the tender skin of the red head’s hand. “Let me guess… while in this engagement with Sweet Pea, you started to genuinely fall for him, and now you’re in a chaotic mess.”

“He thinks you’re in love with Jones, while you’re actually wishing to be in a real relationship with Sweet Pea,” Toni clarified, smiling gently, almost as if she were internally cooing at the situation. “This is like a love story.”

“Yeah, except my happy ending is Sweet Pea not shunning me and pretending we haven’t gotten extremely close these last few months,” Veronica muttered. “I can’t tell him, you guys. This is why I came to you two, because I need to vent this out—I can’t tell him because if he finds out that I think I’m falling in love with him, he’ll never speak to me again!”

“That’s not like Sweet Pea,” Toni shook her head solemnly. “Once he starts to love you, he doesn’t stop. He loves to deeply, so gently—he never wants to hurt anyone and he’d bare whatever he had to so that this world—your world—would be a better place. Even ask Fangs, V. He may look like he’s built for one night stands and emotionless sex, but it’s not true. He’s not built that way.”

“I can’t be in love with him. I just… I just fucking can’t!” Veronica raked her hands through her soft charcoal hair in exasperation, shaking her head as tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m scared, you guys. I don’t want to lose him.”

“Ahh, you gotta love the denial stage,” Cheryl breathed out with a grin, despite her friend’s panic. “It always happens right before the ‘oh, fuck, I’m in love’ stage.”

“Cher, babe, not helping,” Toni gave her girlfriend a pointed look. “C’mon, how about we go sit down, breathe, and have a nice cup of tea while we watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Does that sound good?”

Veronica nodded while wiping away the tears under her eyes with the pads of her pointer fingers. “And maybe Cheryl’s infamous cookies?”

“I’ll go warm up the oven!”

 

 

 

 

A week and a half later, Veronica lightly hummed to herself as she cleaned off the bar. When two large, tender hands wound around her waist, an enormous, happy smile tugged at the sides of Veronica’s lips, knowing exactly who the arms belonged to. Swiftly turning around, her arms draped across his shoulders as she looked up into Sweet Pea’s soft brown eyes. “Hello, beautiful.”

“Hi, handsome,” Veronica giggled, stretching onto her tip toes to meet his lips. “I’m almost done with my shift.”

“Okay,” Sweet Pea smiled, sliding into a bar stool. “So, I think what Jughead needs is a reason to swoop in and save you. He seems like the type to want to save girls.”

Veronica’s face dropped, and the second it did, she immediately brought her face back to normal and gave her fake boyfriend a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“I think we might have to have a messy break up,” Sweet Pea murmured. “I’d like to have pretended that we ended on good terms, but he hasn’t had any motivation to get with you because, well, he thinks you’re with me. So, if we break up and you get all emotional, he has to come running.”

Veronica didn’t want that—even if it was fake in the first place. Having to stage a horrible breakup, especially with the guy she actually wanted to be with, that was almost like torture. “I don’t know, Pea…”

“Don’t know what?” Cheryl, Toni, and Fangs questioned as they walked up to the bar. Nonchalantly, Sweet Pea cleared his throat as a way to tell her not to say anything, even though it went without saying. “That you two are the hottest couple here?”

“Dude, I think Jughead has the hots for you, Ronnie,” Fangs gulped, turning his head to look back at the Serpent King, who, upon realizing the small group at the bar gazed in his direction, dropped his lingering gaze and instead laughed at whatever Betty had said to him. “He’s been like this for the past few days. Should we do something?”

“He’s staring at my girl?” Sweet Pea growled lowly, clenching and unclenching his jaw in feign anger—Veronica could tell because he met her eyes. “I’m gonna fucking end—”

“Sweet Pea, no,” Veronica sighed. “Just leave it. I love Sweet Pea, alright? He can suffer with his unrequited love.”

“But he’s been ogling at you for days—”

“Fangs, please…” Veronica shook her head, begging the boy to quit it. This gave Sweet Pea the inside knowledge that their fake relationship had finally fulfilled it’s purpose, which meant he would go for the messy break up plan. “Just leave it alone.”

“Leave it alone?” Sweet Pea raised his voice, causing a couple of heads in the speakeasy to turn their way. Especially Jughead and Betty’s. “Leave it alone? What, do you love him back?”

Veronica froze in her place, her worst nightmare coming true—both Jughead and Betty began to make their way over to the bar, worried for their friends and what was going on.

“Do you love him back?” Sweet Pea reiterated, his face growing red as he breathed in and out deeply. “Is that why you want to protect him? Because you love Jughead?”

“What?” Betty laughed incredulously. “Veronica, liking Jughead? That’s insane.”

“I—” Veronica couldn’t speak. Her eyes teared up, the pressure and the expectations from different people getting to her. “I—”

“Veronica, is that true?” Jughead softly pushed Betty to the side so he could step forward, a gentle look on his face. “Veronica, hello?”

“If you love me, say something,” Sweet Pea demanded gruffly, his own eyes filling up with tears. She gasped in shock, the sight of seeing Sweet Pea, even though it was all for show, crying created a pool of hurt in the pit of her stomach. “Please… say something.”

“Sweet Pea, I—” he didn’t give her a chance. He knew this was her one shot to have a messy break up, so instead of staying and listening to what she had to say, he shook his head dismissively and stood up.

“If you love Jones so much, why don’t you date him, then?” Sweet Pea snapped coldly, stalking up the stairs of the speakeasy.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Betty voiced, rolling her eyes. “Jughead doesn’t like Veronica, oaky? He would have told me—”

“Betty, shut up,” Jughead squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus. “Veronica… I didn’t know you felt that way.”

Veronica met Cheryl and Toni’s knowing, saddened gaze, before she looked back over at Jughead, the tears continuing to flood down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Jughead… but I don’t feel like that anymore. I used too, but—”

“Wait, what?” Jughead questioned, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Sweet Pea and I began to fake-date because he found out I had a crush on you,” Veronica began, sighing. “The plan was to make you jealous so that you’d have the initiative to ask me out, because he thought that you liked me back and just needed a push. But, as we kept up the ploy, I began to love him more and more, and, well, you less. And now everything is ruined.”

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” Fangs whispered, realizing that he had brought all of this on by giving Sweet Pea something to use. “If I would have known…”

“Veronica, you were too afraid to tell me that you loved me?” Jughead breathed in shock. “If you would have told me, we would have been together. I—I liked you, too.”

“Wait, what?” Betty curled her lip in disgust. “Juggy—”

“But, now you’ve fallen for him,” he continued, cutting the blonde off. “And our time is gone, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry, Jug,” Veronica whispered.

“He doesn’t know, does he?” Jughead chewed on the inside of his cheek, fuming. “Well, now he is.”

“Wait, Jughead, no!” Veronica begged, rushing past the bar to latch onto his arm to stop him. “Jughead, please, don’t tell him. If he knows the truth, he’ll never speak to me again. He doesn’t feel the same way I do. Please, Jughead!”

“Unlike how you kept the truth from me, he deserves to know,” Jughead growled as he ripped his arm from her grip and followed in the direction where Sweet Pea left.

Veronica fell to the ground sobbing, knowing that her friendship with Sweet Pea was over, that he would never want to speak to her again. He didn’t feel the same way, and much like it probably ruined anything she currently had with Jughead, the same fate would go for her relationship with Sweet Pea.

“Veronica…”

“No!” She screamed, jerking from Toni’s fingertips that grazed her shoulder. “No… I have to—I have to get out of here. Fangs, please, watch over La Bonne Nuit.”

“Y-Yeah,” he nodded, gulping. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. Just… out of here,” Veronica attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes that blurred her vision, but it wasn’t much use because the tears kept on coming. She crawled her way up the steps, thankful that she was hidden thanks to the bar covering the front of the door. She made her way towards the bathroom, thankfully unnoticed by Jughead and Sweet Pea sitting on the retro red stools of Pop’s.

When she got into the bathroom, she locked it behind her and pressed herself against the door, letting the tears run freely, without judgement.

Why did you have to get yourself into this mess? Veronica growled to herself in her head, finding every little reason why she was stupid, and deserved everything she had coming.

But, another little voice told her the opposite. It’s not your fault you fell for a handsome, loving, caring, supportive, deep, and incredible guy like Sweet Pea—he’s everything you wanted, any more!

“I don’t deserve him. Jughead was right, this all started out as me using him to make Jughead jealous. He may have suggested it, but I was stupid to agree,” Veronica whimpered. “God, why do I fuck up everything I care about?”

“Pop, have you seen Veronica?” Sweet Pea’s booming voice caused her to clamp her hand onto her mouth to quiet her uncontrollable sobs, and ultimately, her degrading words. “Please, I need to find her. She doesn’t know… she doesn’t know how I truly feel about her!”

Veronica’s eyebrows creased at the proclamation—she was sure he didn’t feel the same way for her. If he liked her back, why would he help her try to make Jughead jealous?

“Sweet Pea, she couldn’t have gone far, she just left,” Cheryl explained. “Try the bathroom.”

She loved Cheryl, but right now, she was silently cursing her.

Veronica felt the weight of Sweet Pea trying to push open the girl’s restroom. She whimpered, shaking her head. “Go away.”

“Veronica, I’ve liked you since you were dating Archie,” Sweet Pea chuckled. “Please, open the door.”

“If you really liked me, why would you try to help me get with Jughead?” Veronica cried. “Why? It doesn’t make sense, Sweet Pea.”

“Because I wanted you to be happy,” he sighed. “It hurt me to hear you confess your love for him, but getting to date you even if it was fake would be almost as good. But, now I find out that you grew to love me, and not Jughead? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t feel the same, and you would hate me, and end our friendship,” Veronica sniffled. “I couldn’t handle that… I couldn’t handle us not being friends.”

“God, no, Veronica,” Sweet Pea mumbled. “I love you, and I’d like to prove it to you, but you won’t open the door.”

Laughing through her tears, she slid up the door and unlocked it, facing him despite knowing she looked like a mess.

“Even when you have makeup running down your cheeks, you’re still so beautiful,” he wiped away a tear with his thumb before bringing himself closer to her. With a soft smile, he placed a tiny kiss upon her lips. “Now, without any fake-relationship in our way, we have kissed. Would you like to go on a date with me, and be my official girlfriend?”

Veronica nodded, wrapping her arms around the boy gratefully. “I love you, Pea.”

“I love you, too, Ronnie.”


End file.
